Life Cycle Assessment of a Biomass Gasification Combined-Cycle System

A life cycle assessment on the production of electricity from biomass in a system based on the FERCO indirectly heated biomass gasifier was performed. The purpose of this study was to quantify the total environmental benefits and drawbacks of the entire system from biomass crops through power distribution. The energy and material flows of all processes necessary to operate the power plant were assessed, with subsystems being defined as the production of biomass as a dedicated feedstock crop, its transportation to the power plant, electricity generation, and all necessary upstream processes. For each year of operation, air, water, and solid waste emissions were tracked over the entire system. The net CO2 emissions were found to be nearly zero but highly; dependent on the amount of carbon that can be sequestered in the soil. A net energy analysis shows that the system efficiency is 33.7%. A discussion of the total emissions, resource consumption, and net energy balance of this biomass-based technology is presented. Contact (e-mail): margaret_mann@nrel.gov